Tarantulas

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog, and I'm sorry.  My toe is healing and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to venture outside in the next few days.  I'm currently under "clean and dry" (in the house, in my office, in the car) restrictions.  No dirt or dust, no covered shoes until the toenail bed has dried up (gross, sorry).  I no longer lay in bed at night with my left foot shielding the right, so the sheets won't touch the toe.  I can tolerate the pressure of the sheets so I'm sleeping better.  I'm progressing, it's just slow.

The other day we had a visit from the bug guy.  He comes once a month and sprays around the perimeter of the house to kill spiders.  He's been a wealth of information about the bats (he loves our bats) and about the critters that live on our mountain.  He told Brett that the rattlesnakes have started changing and no longer always have rattles.  We have western diamondback rattlesnakes, which are extremely venemous, so this was not welcome news.  He and Brett also talked a bit about tarantulas -- we haven't seen many this year.  He filled us in on their migratory and mating habits, which I was skeptical of, so did a google fact check. 

I'm leaving you with a tarantula poem:

The male tarantula
travels for weeks
crawling on his hairy legs,
ponderously crossing fields,
navigating parched arroyos,
to find his mate.
Then,
having met, wed,
and having had sex

 in a burrowed bed,
she eats him.

photo: National Geographic by Paul Zahl